by Nerissa Miller

Created on: July 24, 2009

Hiring a HR professional can be challenging, as a candidate with HR experience, and background will know exactly what to expect in an interview. They know the standard questions that you may ask, and may know very well how to answer your personality test questions much better than any other candidates.

How then can we hire the right HR candidate?

Job Scope

If you are hiring a staff to handle recruitment matters, you may want to consider a candidate that has experienced working in a recruitment agency. Bear in mind that they may be used to a sales driven environment, thus you will need to compensate them equitably to retain them. They will tend to be more aggressive, and you may feel that they are more like a sales or marketing person. This is fine as long as you know how to manage them, and make use of their strengths.

You will be looking for different traits if you are hiring a staff to handle payroll, or a staff to help me manage day to day operational issues. Accept the fact that not many candidates can be all rounded. You will need to put the right person on the right job.

Personality

The candidate may be able to match all your HR related questions such as law requirements for work passes, how do deal with grievances, and how do you manage a difficult staff. You can expect near perfect answers from the candidate. However, if you ask questions such as their working style, how they manage their day to day function, or why they handle in certain way, you may be able to get to understand more about their personality. A candidate's posture, and tone of voice will also tell a lot about them.

You know whether the candidate is a person that follows rules, strict, and uncompromising, or someone that a staff will be willing to approach when they need help.

Knowledge & skills

Understand your department, and organization needs. If you are a Supervisor, do not fear that the candidate will outshine you. Analyse your strengths, and weakness, and hire staff that can complement you in terms of your skills, and knowledge.

There is no one for all formula that can help you hire the right HR staff. Making good use of a person's strengths, and providing training for staff that lacks certain skills will help you build a stronger HR team.

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